Transpac entry list

March 7 is the deadline for discounted entry fees for the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii, but a dozen boats are in well under the wire, listing home ports from San Diego to Seattle and from Long Beach to Coral Gables, Fla.

Five are from northern California, including an illustrious sailor/navigator, Stan Honey who will sail his Cal 40,
Illusion. Entry fees before March 7 are $750 for boats under 50 feet and $950 for boats 50 to 69 feet. Those rates will jump to $900 and $1,200.

Another Cal 40 entry is Wendy Siegal, who won the Aloha class in 2001 with Willow Wind and has led a drive to resurrect the legendary fleet for Transpac 2003 as a 40th anniversary celebration.

Honey's project means Roy Disney will have a different navigator in his bid to reclaim the Barn Door award from Philippe Kahn's
Pegasus as first monohull to finish. His replacement will be Peter Isler, a classmate of Honey when they studied meteorology at Yale. Isler has been the navigator in Dennis Conner's America's Cup campaigns since 1986.

Entry chairman Bill Lee has tallied more than 100 inquiries from other boat owners. He has verbal commitments from many past participants who have not sent official submissions. The current paid entries represent five in the Racing divisions for smaller boats and seven Aloha competitors.

Transpac Commodore Brad Avery said, "What that tells me is that people are getting their friends together to do the race. You don't have to have a boat like
Pyewacket or
Pegasus to enjoy the Transpac."

Honey's crew will include his wife Sally, an accomplished sailor in her own right, and veterans Skip Allan and Jon Andron, who have sailed 24 and 13 Hawaiian races, respectively, along with Andron's sons Scott and Richard and Sally's son, Tamsin Lindsay.

Honey has sailed and navigated numerous record ocean passages, including the fastest Transpac of 7 1/2 days by Roy E. Disney's
Pyewacket in 1999 and the single-handed Transpac record in '94 on his Cal 40. Honey has navigated 17 races to Hawaii, winning eight, and also has guided several of Steve Fossett's record-breaking runs on the 125ft catamaran
PlayStation.

For the less experienced, a Transpac rule requires that 30 per cent of the crew have attended a Safety at Sea Seminar within the last five years. A seminar is scheduled March 15 at the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship in Newport Beach. Information: (949) 645-9412.